Fungi respond to the effects of plant roots and deep-banded nutrient-rich amendments in a dispersive clay subsoil

A soil column experiment was established to test the effects of deep-banded nutrient rich amendments (poultry manure with slow release nutrients and straw amended with nitrogen: phosphorus:potassium (NPK) fertiliser) and plants (Triticum aestivum cv. Yipti) on soil aggregation in a dispersive clay subsoil from Victoria, Australia.Quantitative PCR analysis of these soils showed both the amendment and plus plant treatments significantly affected fungal abundance at stem elongation phase and crop maturity.The column experiment was first published as Wang X, Sale P, Hayden HL, Tang C, Clark G, Armstrong R 2020 Plant roots and deep-banded nutrient-rich amendments influence aggregation in a dispersive clay subsoil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 141:107664This experiment further investigated the fungal community using amplicon sequencing within a sub-set of soil samples from the column experiment.The aim of this experiment was to investigate which fungal taxa respond in a high clay, sodic subsoil to amendment addition and plants, and may have a role in the formation of macroaggregates.